Birth Order And Its Impact On Society

According to Alfred Adler, the birth order of the children in a family will largely affect how they age and the personalities which they will form. First borns enter the family as the only child. They revel in the love and full attention from their parents, that is, until the second baby comes along. Suddenly, first borns are dethroned and lose the undivided attention they are used to receiving. As a result, they tend to develop a strong sense of responsibility and protectiveness over their siblings at an early age, which often leads to them becoming authoritative adults. Moreover, when there are multiple children in the family, parents will set high

There are many things that effect a person’s personality and future success. Things like gender, race, ethnicity, and economic stability are all examples of what can affect a person’s development, but what about someone’s birth-date? Can a person’s birth-order really effect someone’s future? In “The Power of Birth Order” Jeffrey Kluger writes about how birth-order can determine a person’s personality and success; throughout “The Power of Birth Order” he established three categories: first-born, second-born, and third-born.

Among the first psychologists to consider the effect of birth order on personality was Alfred Adler. Adler espoused that birth order was determinative of the amount of attention that children garnered from their parents (Adler, 1964). The first perspective on birth order thus stemmed from a belief that individuals competed for attention and for areas of strength as a response to parental expectations.

The family environment in which an individual grows up, has substantial effects on the kind of person they become later in life. It has even been argued, that the functional birth order, which is affected by the environment one grows up in, plays a bigger role in moulding them into the people that they become later in life than the biological birth order (Sulloway, 1996). Courtiol, Raymond and Faurie (2009) investigated the significance of birth order on trustfulness and reciprocation of individuals, with their hypothesis being that birth order would influence adults’ behaviour towards non-kin. The results of the experiment speak for themselves, as they indicate that a distinct trend can be seen in the characteristics of people depending on their birth order. According to Sulloway, it has been argued that the characteristic differences the birth order forms, are the consequences of sibling competition for parental investment

Though, birth order illuminates a majority of our personality traits and decisions such as, career and romantic relationships. Parents get wrapped up in the ‘firstborn haze’ and overlook how much pressure they put on older siblings. By creating a pressure to be the best and ‘in control’ the older sibling takes on the leadership role and often becomes more aligned with doing better in school than younger siblings. Determination and intelligence correspond with higher level of career, and that is just what the older sibling strives for. In fact, “100% of astronauts who’ve gone into space were either eldest children or eldest sons” (State). Relationships work better if partners differ from each other and aren’t in the same birth order. The competition can be detrimental and problematic. Alfred Adler’s birth order theory provides us with useful information to reflect our decisions and explain how you think about things. By becoming aware of it we can become more familiar with ourselves and get out of the all too familiar comfort

Though there are specific temperaments and personality traits commonly found in each birthplace, it does not signify that each characteristic perfectly fits a single child or adult in that order. Many variables interfere with the general traits found in each birthplace and can easily change the personalities of that specific order. A complete change in birth order characteristics can also result from these specific interferences. Both circumstances in the outside and inside world take effect and are called the variables of birth order. These variables are very important to keep in mind while looking at this subject. Dr. Kevin Leman, an internationally renowned psychologist, and New York Times Bestselling Author, lists some of the major variables found in many children and adults in his book The Birth Order Book. The spacing of up to five years or more, gender, physical and mental disabilities or difference, deaths in the family, and also spacing will interfere and alter the personality traits found in each birth placement. This list of variables can continue on, but looking at these can provide insight to those dealing with doubts towards their specific birth order or where they may fit

If researchers hypothesis are supported and birth order affects first born children then, they will score high in Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, low in Openness to Experience, and Extraversion. Middle children score low in Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and high in Neuroticism. While youngest children will score high in Agreeableness, Neuroticism, Extraversion and low Conscientiousness. Current research will support the fact that birth order certainly plays a role as it pertains to personality and findings by Saroglou & Fiasse (2002) as well as Healy & Ellis (2006) supports the fact that parents expectations and treatment shape a child’s temperament.

Does birth order affect personality? Can the chronological order of which you and your siblings are born determine your fate and shape you as an adult? As many factors as there are that mold us into who we are and how we are, it's hard to believe that birth order could be one of those significant factors. Alfred Adler, founder of individual psychology, was the first to theorize and discuss how birth order affects one's personality development. Adler argued that birth order can leave an ingrained impression on one's lifestyle which is reflected on the way the person handles friendships, work, and love. Adler believed that his theory could help people understand why they are the way are so that they could improve their life as Adler put emphasis

Is there a “personality tag” for each child, depending on their birth order? Does the family size, or even the parents’ life styles, affect anything? Birth order is more than just an old wives’ tale about predicting the personalities of each child in every family. “Birth order, put in its proper context, is a key that can unlock personalities and give you a new perspective on human nature.” (First- born?,1). Every child of every family has a personality tag, just because of their spot on the immediate family tree. Family size and birth order are factors that make the “personality tag” for the first born, middle child, last born, and only child of each family.

It is hypothesized that aspects of a firstborn personality will result in the firstborn being more self-confident, independent, conscientious, and more of a leader whereas the later-born is the opposite: very sociable, a follower, less conscientious and more social. The hypothesis was not supported, in that the results do not show all the aspects of personalities that were expected. Categories such as: self-confidence sociability and leadership are as expected, but conscientiousness is a surprise. The firstborn is instead less conscientious than the later-born. An extraneous variable that could have affected the results include how the individual is raised. One way of overcoming participant variables could be to test both or all siblings as well

Parent’s own birth order can be a problem if there is a replication between the family they were raised and the family they are raising, and it is believed that youngest parents can be of great help to their youngest and oldest children thanks to features they had as youngest children, however,biases can occur irrespective of their own birth

Today in class we learned about Alfred Adler’s theory about birth order. Oldest children have more expectations set on them by their parents like they have to be role models for the rest of their siblings, they are the guinea pigs as being the parent’s first child, they are responsible, and bossy. A study has also shown that first borns have higher IQs. Middle borns can fulfill many roles such as the mediator or clown of the family. However they are often overlooked and get to fly under the radar. Middle children also tend to have the lowest IQ scores. Youngest children are spoiled in that they receive more love and material things than their siblings. In my family, I am the oldest with two younger siblings, a boy and a girl.

Debates on the relationship between birth order and intelligence have been remaining controversial. Birth order is considered as a person's ranking by age among his or her siblings. There have been numerous researchers studying about this subject to find whether firstborns generally have a higher IQ scores than their siblings. Some scientists conclude that birth order strongly influents intelligence; however, others oppose to this, claiming that birth order has no effect on intelligence. In this paper, my study deals with the birth order effects on intelligence.

They mature as only children, pampered and the center of attention, until their siblings are born and they are “dethroned” (Allpsych). First-born children, when compared to their siblings, tend to have a greater chance of developing feelings of inferiority as their focal position in the family structure is altered by the birth of a sibling (Bnet). They often are especially vulnerable to stress, and have a strong desire to gain attention and seek the approval of others (Allpysch). Unlike the independent leaders only children become, oldest children can be left feeling cheated and unsuccessful.

For many years, there’s been an ongoing debate as to whether birth order truly has an effect on the way we behave throughout our development. The article I’ve selected argues against the notion that these two correlate. The sample can be found at PNAS.org, otherwise known as the Proceedings of the National Academy of the United States of America. Titled, “Examining the Effects of Birth Order on Personality” three authors collectively come to this agreement that there are no lasting effects from birth order in long-term personality traits. The names of these authors are, Julia M. Roher, Boris Eglaff, and Stefan C. Schmukle. They explore previous research on the subject from various psychologists, and later decide to conduct their own research and draw conclusions thereafter.